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As it is, 'God Save the Queen' cannot hope to challenge the glory of La Marseillaise

Some years ago, I was invited to address the conference of a Eurosceptic French political party. Making a speech in a foreign language is no simple matter. The rhetorical forms differ, and you have to work hard at the cadences. But I reckon I cracked it.

I told the story of the Francophile MP, Harold Nicolson, who had taken the first ferry to liberated French soil in 1945. Landing at Dieppe, he leaned down to touch the ground.

“Have you dropped something, Monsieur?” asked a porter. “Non,” replied Nicolson, “j’ai retrouvé quelque chose.” And that, I told delegates, was how we had felt when France voted against...